Welcome to my first blog - an account of personal observations and reflections on an array of subjects of interest, ranging from books, drama, films, Chinese opera, performing arts, culture, history, travelling and the latest developments in this Asia's world city and the global village at large.

Tuesday, 26 June 2007

If you ask me what strikes me most in the last decade on the personal front, I can't really tell because everything seems to be so inextricably interwoven that it is almost impossible to single out anything from the 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

If you press me for a definite answer, however, I'd say I was, and somewhat still am, most bothered by the tragic loss of Godsend talents of pop culture in Hong Kong within three consecutive years from 2002 to 2004.

Those who grew up in the heyday of Hong Kong's pop culture and so-called creative industries (pardon me for my scepticism again, but I'm somewhat uneasy about the word "creative", as the most successful Hong Kong pop culture producers are essentially very skilful adopters rather than innovative creators who make things from scratch) will share my gratitude to the glamorous stars and talents who had made our earlier days more colourful, interesting and memorable than they should have been otherwise. Emotionally, I find those extraordinary men and women as close and attached as my family and friends. Sometimes even more so. I simply can't imagine how different my life would have been should I never have a chance to know them, to enjoy their works and let them be my life-time companions.

Visitors to this blog probably know that I'm a fan of the legendary diva Anita Mui's. She is my pride and so is my privilege to become a loyal supporter of hers.

Crowned "the daughter of Hong Kong" after she lost her bitter battle against cervical cancer in 2003, arguably the darkest year in Hong Kong's history after the city's fall to Japanese invasion from December 1941 to August 1945, Anita deserves the highest level of respect from personal to professional fronts. She is the best-selling singer in Hong Kong with records unbroken for more than two decades. Jacky Cheung and Hacken Lee are not even close. She attempted and mastered a wide spectrum of characters that are unimaginable even for well-recognised actresses such as Maggie Cheung, Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi. Her sophisticated voice and on-stage charisma, as well as her success story that is often compared to the baby-boomers' Story of Hong Kong, were by no means replicable anywhere, any time.

Indeed, the local economy has changed so much that it is now impossible to replicate Anita's success story. The shabby theatres where Anita and her elder sister Ann performed were torn down. It is now unimaginable for a four-year-old toddler who can barely stand on her feet to sing Mandarin oldies and Cantonese opera live on stage. The lounges where Anita sang night after night before she won the singing contest have now become karaoke bars. Rather than enjoying music with friends in a lounge, stressed out men and women now find it much more rewarding and relieving to vent their emotions out loud in a confined space. The teenagers and students who used to listen to her songs, watch her films and attend her concerts have now become middle-aged souls torn apart in the ever-mounting confusion and pressure of Hong Kong. All they could do is to cling to their sweet memories of their carefree good old days with the hope that Anita might release a new album or a new movie sooner or later.

But their humble hope was shattered in the heart-breaking year of 2003.

The departure of Anita and other talents of Hong Kong's Canto-pop culture was not the end of an era. It was the end of a generation's dream and hope. We no longer have anyone to look up to, to attach our emotions to, and to share our thoughts and feelings with as if they can talk to us through their works. Talents like Anita have spoilt our generation with distinctive vocal authority, unmatched professionalism in performance and the highest possible integrity of mankind. This is why I felt a bit unsatisfied reading the obituary in Time Magazine, which focused on her professional achievements, although it was already much better than the sensational local press that adamantly and distastefully tagged on her private life. Her courage to defend justice and morality in the most challenging times; her genuine sympathy for those who suffer was by all means extraordinary. Those who concede to power and wealth should be intimidated by Anita's courage and selflessness, even though she might not have received as much school education as they did.

Of course I understand that Anita and her true friends shall live forever in the hearts of their admirers. But I still find it difficult to hold back tears when I think of the young souls who left us so prematurely, bequeathing us a legacy of dedication, excellence, integrity and professionalism that we should be grateful for generations.

This is particularly true when the lust for power replaces justice; the greed for profits substitutes respect and empathy; complacence prevents excellence and narrow-mindedness limits the options for common good. Don't you think so?

Monday, 25 June 2007

Repetition is hardly noble. It only serves to remind people with extremely short span of memory of things that are truly important.

However, I find it really difficult to resist the temptation to repeat myself in this second part of my English retrospect. The complacence and hypocrisy of Hong Kong's baby-boomers, who are still dominating the business, political and social helms of the city, just makes me unbearably sick.

Despite the hardships and difficulties we have endured since the handover 10 years ago, there is no sign that Hong Kong's leaders have done any soul-searching in defining Hong Kong's deep-rooted legacy of problems, let alone proposing any meaningful solutions accordingly. It seems that vested interests of the powerful conglomerates have dragged the feet of Hong Kong so much that is leading Hong Kong to nowhere but decay and decline.

For one thing, alarm bells have been activated repeatedly on Hong Kong's over-reliance on the service sector, notably financial services, property development and tourism. Unfortunately no one seems to have paid serious and sufficient attention to this burning issue over the past decade. Now that the economy is said to have strongly recovered and financial markets booming, the issue is likely to be ignored for the next couple of years until another economic crisis emerges. I find it really difficult to understand why so many people genuinely believe that financial services alone would be able to support a diverse population like the one in Hong Kong. Don't they know that about one-third of our fellow citizens are still living in public housing on extremely low rents and wages? Don't they know that the glass-walled skyscrapers in Central represent nothing but the fallacy of elitism and an international metropolis? Don't they know that the financial sector is often dominated by expatriates who never step out of their comfortable zones on Hong Kong Island, feeling intimidated to cross the harbour to visit the local Chinese communities of Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City, Kwun Tong, Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun and Tin Shui Wai? What do these guys have to do with the dynamic livelihood of the people of Hong Kong?

For another, the majority of fellow citizens are denied of the chance to share the benefits of economic recovery due to the heavily biased economic structure. With the exception of a few sectors, most salary-earners and self-employed people are excluded from generous pay and income rises like those of the civil servants on permanent employment (sorry, no contract staff allowed). Unfortunately consumer prices have shown no respect to the reality and started to climb due to supply shortages and other factors. Latest figures also showed that the income gap in Hong Kong has widened to unprecedented levels.

This is particularly regretful when the Government is trying to comply with the party line of cultivating a harmonious community. However, the Government has shown no insight or meaningful measures to address this deteriorating problem that can lead to devastating consequences.

The recent dissolution of the Commission on Poverty was welcomed though. The approach adopted by the Commission to address poverty was essentially ineffective and a waste of time and resources because the fundamentals are neither challenged nor questioned. The root cause of poverty in Hong Kong, notably poverty that can be inherited for generations, is the demise of social upward mobility as compared to three decades ago. Opportunities to improve one's life with self-efforts are extremely limited with the rapid institutionalisation of Hong Kong, whereby innovation is suppressed and challenges to vested interests condemned as a threat to superficial stability. Students are not trained to have sharp and critical minds but disciples of the baby-boomers. Fresh graduates and young workers do not enjoy the same level of trust, freedom and exposure as the baby-boomers did. Individuals from humble roots are often denied of chances for a good start due to poor education, healthcare and all-rounded personal development at an early stage, which, unfortunately, is made to be costly with limited admission quotas.

Amid the challenges of an aging population, a narrow tax base, the lack of job security due to prevalence of short-term contracts and outsourcing, coupled with the deteriorating natural environment and living conditions, it seems that Hong Kong has lost its direction for more than 10 years but still can't figure out which is the right way to move forward.

Haunted by its previous success in the 1980s, a sense of complacence prevailing among the business, political and social leaders is extraordinarily disgusting and worrisome. While I understand that Hong Kong enjoys an unmatched advantage, thanks to China's blessing and support, there is no excuse for us to brush aside our long-standing problems as if they never existed. As we have seen over the past decade, the later we start rolling up our sleeves to tackle these problems with courage and substance, the more and longer we shall suffer.

Ladies and gentlemen, harmony does not mean speaking in one voice without any dissent or challenge to conventions. Harmony means genuine respect, tolerance and understanding for diverging views and voices. Harmony is by no means an excuse for brainwashing or whitewashing. Active listening and truly open dialogues with paradigms and stereotypes set aside are the first essential step to achieve harmony.

If you guys are not ready or reluctant to embrace the changing paradigms, stop bluffing and step down. Your dirty old tricks no longer fit the brave new world. Nor are these wanted or sought after any more.

Friday, 15 June 2007

How could I spare myself from sneering when Ada Wong, chairperson of Wan Chai District Board and a vocal activist to defend the culture and heritage of Hong Kong, made a fuss of the attendees to a recent civil service training workshop, who were said to know nothing about the increasingly influential pressure groups such as the Roundtable Group, the 30SGroup and the Independent Media?

The laughing stock was not just those ignorant and arrogant mid-level to senior civil servants who genuinely believe that they are the leaders of Hong Kong rather than a bunch of idiots obsessed with bureaucracy, but also those lawmakers or so-called opinion leaders who waste no time to fire bullets at any game that may stick their head out for any reason.

Unfortunately, the number of those cowards and idiots has been increasing over the last decade, as is their level of lousiness and senselessness.

For one thing, the lawmakers elected in the handicapped democracy of Hong Kong often represent their own interests rather than those of the people who actually cast the ballots to put them on their seats. They even don't bother to conduct opinion polls on key issues before putting words into their electorate's mouth. Unfortunately most Hong Kong people are too busy to be bothered by the fact that they have been manipulated for all these years.

For another, the hopelessly poor and yet deteriorating quality of discussions at the legislature, if those can be truly defined as discussions in any sense, is by all means too embarrassing for the world city of Asia. Sometimes I can't help wondering what the people of Hong Kong have done to deserve nothing better than a bunch of idiots sitting at the bench.

Apparently there are plenty of examples in the ongoing farce surrounding the plunge of a cable car last Monday evening. For example, James Tien, the newly appointed chairman of the obsolete Hong Kong Tourism Board, also head of the pro-Government and pro-business Liberal Party and an elected member of Legislative Council from the New Territories East constituency, spared no time to jump on the bandwagon to suggest that the Tourism Board should seek compensation from the cableway operator for the promotional materials that highlighted the cableway as one of the major attractions during the public holidays in early July but could no longer be used. I have no interest in speculating what Mr Tien's remarks truly meant but just by looking at his complacent and exciting smile displaying the "wasted promotional materials", he left me a strong impression of sheer opportunism by taking advantage of the eyebrow-raising incident in his own benefit rather than the Tourism Board, let alone the public. Pardon me for any scepticism here, but there is no obvious evidence to convince me of anything other than that.

Those who have a chance to attend any legislative session or watch it live on television would probably agree with me that the Hong Kong lawmakers are truly naive and stupid to an extent that has become hardly tolerable. It just seems that these guys - again most of whom are baby-boomers - don't really understand what they are talking about. Words seem to flow out of their lips or any organs other than their brains, if any. And I can never understand their enthusiasm to ask meaningless questions that don't really help resolving matters as if they could receive credits by the number of questions asked in their four-year term.

Now that we should appreciate the concerns of Beijing and its die-hard proteges that Hong Kong is not ready for universal suffrage for the legislature and the chief executive. The issue does not lie in democracy but the people that are more than eager to hijack the system for their own benefits rather than public interest.

While I appreciate the much-touted and even untold concerns of Beijing, as well as the genuinely sordid nature of politics, I am still supportive of introducing democracy in Hong Kong sooner than later. Only by that time could the people of Hong Kong prevent those shameless opportunists from hijacking our ballots for their personal pursuits for longer than necessary.

Sunday, 10 June 2007

Those who read both Chinese and English may ask why I chose to write the same retrospect in Chinese and English. However, it is not my intention to produce an English translation of my retrospect of important issues in the past decade or vice versa. This is meant to be a personal experiment to explore my thoughts on the same issues in two languages with completely different roots, which have made who I am and what Hong Kong is today.

Despite the long-time study and daily usage of these languages throughout the decades, I have a strong feeling that I don't really know enough about them and what they truly stand for in cultural and philosophical terms. The objective of this small experiment is to confirm whether the intrinsic and unique characteristics of both languages would have any impact on the perspectives or the approach that the issues are presented and discussed.

Pardon me for my complacence, but this exercise is also meant to be an attempt to help fill the gap in English discussions on Hong Kong issues from local and non-academic perspectives. How boring and disappointing it is to see that important issues such as the impact of Web 2.0 on the governance of Hong Kong as shown in the Star Ferry pier demolition last December has been vigorously discussed in Chinese but not English. How can we still cling to high-sounding position of Asia's world city if we don't bother or are unable to share our thoughts with our foreign friends in the international language that we have been learning for generations?

How boring it is to see that the local scholars, columnists and commentators are showing off theoretical terms from the West as if they can't express themselves meaningfully without throwing those big words in the face of readers. At a time when the world has become flat, it is equally important to share our genuine thoughts with friends around the world rather than following the notorious copycat formula. Isn't it?